You're right! Actually, the place where I am standing taking the photo is going to be a new hosta bed - about 600 square feet eventually. The problem I have is with rocks!! Big rocks....lots of them. The little hosta bed you can see on the right with the bird bath is just about 20x18 feet and we literally took about 2 ton of rock out of it to get it 2' deep. No more! The place where I am standing is under a dense grove of trees and I am going to bring dirt in and build it up some. No more digging for me! Not without heavy equipment anyway. There are some more shade beds around the house and some sun beds and veg garden out by the barn, but NO MORE excavating rocks for me. As you see more of my photos, you will see nice rock borders and walls - there is a good reason for that, I have plenty of building material. AAARRRGH! But I do love it here and wouldn't willingly trade it for any other spot on this earth. My husband built our home right in the middle of 44 acres that look just like this photo. I feel like I can brag a little as he had this place before I met him and is sharing it with me. He had just started on the house 16 yrs. ago when we met. Of course, it wasn't manicured and planted till I came along!!!! Thanks for the compliments everyone....I'll pass them on to my sweetie....

For the ultimate in 'raised beds', see Renaldo's Wall to Wall posts. Now, I realize that he was actually building retaining walls, but you can get some ideas there about what you can do with salvaged brick....
Linda P

And time remembered is grief forgotten,
And frosts are slain and flowers begotten.....
Algernon Charles Swinburne